Die Hard (1988) 20th Century Fox/Action RT: 132 minutes Rated R (strong bloody violence, language, brief nudity, drug use) Director: John McTiernan Screenplay: Steven E. de Souza and Jeb Stuart Music: Michael Kamen Cinematography: Jan de Bont Release date: July 15, 1988 (US) Cast: Bruce Willis, Alan Rickman, Bonnie Bedelia, Reginald VelJohnson, Paul Gleason, Alexander Gudonov, William Atherton, Hart Bochner, James Shigeta, De’voreaux White, Robert Davi, Grand L. Bush, Bruno Doyon, Andreas Wisniewski, Clarence Gilyard Jr., Joey Plewa, Lorenzo Caccialanza, Gerard Bonn, Dennis Hayden, Al Leong, Gary Roberts, Hans Buhringer, Wilhelm von Homburg, Mary Ellen Trainor. Box Office: $85.8M (US)/$143.6M (World)
Rating: ****
I’m going to settle the debate right here and now. Die Hard IS a Christmas movie! These are the words of Movie Guy 24/7. So there!
I saw the action classic Die Hard at one of the oldest theaters in Philadelphia, the old Boyd Theater at 19th and Chestnut Sts., located in the heart of Center City. The Boyd was one of those old time movie palaces with an enormous screen and a balcony. It was the ideal venue to watch Die Hard, an epic action film in the tradition of The Guns of Navarone, The Great Escape and The Towering Inferno. It’s also the movie that cemented Bruce Willis’ status as a bona fide action star. All Die Hard needed was an overture and an intermission.
Willis stars as John McClane, a New York City police detective who comes to Los Angeles to spend Christmas with his estranged wife Holly (Bedelia, Presumed Innocent) and kids. She accepted a job that was too good to pass up and he didn’t want to leave his job in New York, so they’ve been living thousands of miles apart for the past six months. Needless to say, it put a real strain on their marriage.
Holly works at the Nakatomi Plaza Building, a huge building whose upper floors are still under construction. John arrives during the office Christmas party and almost immediately has an argument with his wife. While she’s addressing her colleagues, a group of armed men crash the party and take everybody hostage. Barefoot John grabs his service revolver and hides. He’s about to become the proverbial fly in the ointment.
Hans Gruber (Rickman, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves) is the leader of the terrorist gang. He has no idea his plans are about to go seriously awry. These guys are serious about their work. They’re armed with automatic weapons and C-4 explosives. That doesn’t prevent McClane from taking them on. After killing the first of 12 bad guys, he takes his two-way radio and tries to call for back-up. The 911 operators don’t believe him at first. It isn’t until McClane drops the body of a dead bad guy on a patrol car being driven by Sgt. Al Powell (VelJohnson, Family Matters) that LAPD springs into action.
While LAPD tries to gain control of the situation, McClane communicates with Powell and keeps him apprised of the situation inside. Deputy Police Chief Dwayne Robinson (Gleason, The Breakfast Club) is convinced he’s actually one of the terrorists trying to mislead the police. Gruber wants to find McClane because he grabbed a bag of detonators off one of the dead terrorists. He doesn’t yet know that his unknown adversary is (a) a cop and (b) the spouse of one of the hostages. It’s a game of hide and seek/cat and mouse as McClane continues to elude and eliminate Gruber’s guys.
So what is Gruber’s end game? The whole terrorist thing is actually a ruse. His real objective is to steal the $640 million in bearer bonds stored in the building’s vault. He tries to force Holly’s boss Takagi (Shigeta, The Yakuza) to give them the access code. He refuses; Hans executes him in cold blood. Then he puts his computer hacker Theo (Gilyard, Top Gun) to work cracking the automated safe. BTW, another one of Gruber’s guys is played by 80s action movie mainstay Al Leong (Lethal Weapon).
An epic action movie like Die Hard wouldn’t be complete without a lot of supporting characters. There are plenty on hand here. Argyle (White, Action Jackson) is the hip limousine driver who brings McClane to Nakatomi and ends up trapped in the garage during the siege. Richard Thornburg (Atherton, Ghostbusters) is an arrogant television journalist who puts McClane’s family in jeopardy by interviewing his young children on the air. Harry Ellis (Bochner, Supergirl), a sleazy colleague of Holly’s, tries to negotiate with Hans and secure his own release by trying to convince McClane to surrender. Obviously, it doesn’t end well for Ellis. A couple of FBI agents named Johnson (Davi, Licence to Kill) and Johnson (Bush, Lethal Weapon) show up and try to take charge of the situation. These guys are thick-headed, by-the-book morons who won’t listen to anybody. You could send Beavis and Butthead to do their jobs and they wouldn’t do any worse.
Die Hard is not only one of the best action movies of the 80s; it’s one of the best action movies EVER! It’s filmmaking on a grand scale. Director John McTiernan (Predator, The Hunt for Red October) goes all out and succeeds in giving the audience a great time at the movies. Die Hard represents everything that’s right about filmmaking. It’s an all-out cop flick that’s actually intelligent AND full of large-scale action sequences. One of the most memorable sequences has McClane harnessing himself with a fire hose and jumping off the building’s roof right before it explodes, it’s been rigged with C-4 and Gruber means to kill the hostages and any law enforcement agents who have the misfortune of being in the vicinity. McClane pushes himself from the side of the building and shoots the window, breaking the glass so he can swing inside to safety. Die Hard is full of awesome moments that remind the viewer of what great filmmaking is all about.
As McClane, Bruce Willis delivers a star-making performance. It’s the character that would come to define his career. Prior to Die Hard, Willis starred in the modestly successful 1987 comedy Blind Date and the 1988 comedy flop Sunset, both directed by Blake Edwards. At the time, he was best known for his role in the hit TV series Moonlighting (1985-89) opposite Cybil Shepherd. Who would have ever guessed he’d become a top action star and a big box office draw? I certainly didn’t.
McClane is the ultimate action movie hero. He sneaks through air ducts and around stairwells while providing a running commentary about what’s going on around him. Like all 80s action heroes worth their weight in popcorn, he makes wise cracks as he takes down bad guys. After his first kill, he quips, “Nine million terrorists in the world and I gotta kill one with feet smaller than my sister.” while trying on the dead man’s shoes. He gets off many choice lines like “Now I know what a TV dinner feels like.” while crawling through an air shaft and “Welcome to the party, pal!” when L.A.’s finest finally arrive on the scene. Of course, we can’t forget McClane’s trademark line: “”Yippee-ki-yay, mother f***er.”
The late Alan Rickman is great as the Eurotrash villain who’s nothing more than a glorified thief. He’s an educated man who once had ties to a major terrorist organization and a complete megalomaniac. This is a dangerous combination. It makes him one of the most memorable villains outside the whole James Bond franchise. The late Alexander Gudonov (Witness, The Money Pit) shows up as one of the terrorists. He’s a total psychopath who wants revenge against McClane for killing his brother (another one of the bad guys). Bedelia is good as Holly, the estranged wife who refuses to be intimidated by Gruber or anybody else for that matter. The way she deals with Thornburg at the end is classic.
VelJohnson is a stand-out as the former street cop who rides a desk after a traumatic incident involving a minor and a fake gun. The way he bonds with McClane is the movie’s heart. He adds a measure of gravitas to the proceedings. Gleason plays the kind of character he always plays, an a**hole. The same goes for Atherton. They’re both great as people you love to hate.
The special effects and stunts in Die Hard are incredible. It’s filled with action. It’s legitimately exciting. It’s made to be seen on a huge screen. It’s like The Towering Inferno of action movies with it being set in a tall building. In short, Die Hard is the very definition of four-star film. It’s also one of the most violent Christmas-themed movies I’ve ever seen. In case you need further proof of what kind of movie it is, check this out. The 12 bad guys = The 12 days of Christmas. Well, think what you will about the issue, but you can never deny that Die Hard totally rocks!
